The NYPD needs the public’s help in finding two men wanted in connection with at least five gunpoint robberies that have occurred in Jamaica since July.
In each of the incidents, law enforcement sources said, the crooks approached victims, displayed handguns and demanded property. They got away with property including headphones, bank cards, a luxury watch, cellphones and cash.
Authorities said the most recent stickup in the pattern ended in violence. According to police, the two bandits confronted a 33-year-old man in the area of 88th Avenue and 150th Street at 4 a.m. on Aug. 9 and demanded his cash and cellphone.
When the victim resisted, police sources noted, one of the bandits produced a firearm, and then both suspects began punching the victim about the head and body. The crooks took $90 in cash, but couldn’t get the man’s phone before they fled the scene. The victim suffered a cut lip and swelling to his head.
The video that police released on Aug. 18 shows the suspects in the vicinity of 160th Street and Hillside Avenue following the Aug. 9 robbery.
The other armed robberies in the pattern are as follows:
- At 12:20 a.m. on July 23, the crooks approached three individuals — a 20-year-old man, a 21-year-old man and a 19-year-old woman — in front of a location on 164th Street Jamaica Avenue. The crooks wound up stealing from them a backpack, two wallets, a pair of Beats headphones, ID cards and bank cards, then fled in a white SUV traveling eastbound on Jamaica Avenue.
- At 10:05 a.m. on July 26, one of the suspects confronted a 64-year-old man as he sat in his car with the window open in front of a location on 164th Street near 89th Avenue. The victim resisted as the crook took the man’s $7,000 Tudor watch, but the bandit dropped the weapon used in the caper — later determined to be a BB gun — before fleeing northbound on 164th Street.
- Sometime on Aug. 3, the bandits approached a 35-year-old man at the corner of 89th Avenue and 153rd Street and stole his Samsung Galaxy cellphone. The pair was observed fleeing westbound on 88th Avenue.
- At 2:05 a.m. on Aug. 5, the thieves confronted three men in front of a location on 90th Avenue near Grace Court and asked them for $20 in cash. When the victims refused, one of the bandits produced a firearm and demanded all of their property. The suspects took three iPhones and $254 in cash, then fled eastbound on 90th Avenue.
- At 3 a.m. on Aug. 8, the crooks approached a 19-year-old man in front of a home on 171st Street between 90th and Jamaica avenues. Even though they displayed a gun and demanded cash, the suspects fled before taking any property from the victim.
All of the incidents were reported to the 103rd Precinct.
Anyone with information regarding the pattern or the bandits’ whereabouts is urged to call Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS (for Spanish, dial 888-57-PISTA), visit their website or send a text message to 274637 (CRIMES), then enter TIP577. All calls and messages are kept confidential.
